Home & Garden
The Beauty in Nature: Waterfowl in Flight
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- Written by Clyde McMillan-Gamber Clyde McMillan-Gamber
Winter and early spring are the times of waterfowl (ducks, geese, and swans) in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Melinda’s Garden: Managing Gnats on Houseplants
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- Written by Melinda Myers Melinda Myers
They flit across your face, hover near your houseplants, or gather by the window. Fortunately, these fungus gnat insects are more annoying to us than harmful to our plants.
Melinda’s Garden: Grow Herbs Indoors for Year-Round Enjoyment
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- Written by Melinda Myers Melinda Myers
Add garden-fresh flavor to your meals year-round. Grow a few of your favorite herbs indoors, harvest, and enjoy.
The Beauty in Nature: Wintering Harriers and Short-Ears
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- Written by Clyde McMillan-Gamber Clyde McMillan-Gamber
In winter, over several years, I’ve seen wintering northern harriers, which are a kind of hawk, and short-eared owls hunting mice and small birds in marshes and tall-grass fields in southeastern Pennsylvania, including at Middle Creek Wildlife Area and Gettysburg National Park.
The Beauty in Nature: Winter Colors
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- Written by Clyde McMillan-Gamber Clyde McMillan-Gamber
Winter seems drab to many people in southeastern Pennsylvania. Gray skies and deciduous trees, brown fields, and cold, ice, and snow dampen human spirits. But bright colors in nature beautify winter landscapes and lift people’s emotions.
The Beauty in Nature: Native American Farming
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- Written by Clyde McMillan-Gamber Clyde McMillan-Gamber
Beside hunting, fishing, and gathering, Native Americans living in eastern forests had a unique, interesting, and ingenious way of growing crops in small fields in those shaded woods. Their only tools, before the coming of European settlers, were stone axes and sharp-pointed sticks.
The Beauty in Nature: Eggs on Their Feet
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- Written by Clyde McMillan-Gamber Clyde McMillan-Gamber
The 4-foot-tall, 88-pound emperor penguins are the only birds on Earth that raise young on sea ice around the Antarctic Continent during the southern hemisphere’s winter, which is our summer.
Melinda’s Garden: Keep Gardening after the First Fall Frost
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- Written by Melinda Myers Melinda Myers
There is nothing worse than frost in the forecast and a garden full of vegetables not quite ready for picking. Use some simple strategies to extend the growing season and keep enjoying garden-fresh vegetables.
The Beauty in Nature: Interesting Local Insects
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- Written by Clyde McMillan-Gamber Clyde McMillan-Gamber
July to the end of October is the time of insects in southeastern Pennsylvania because those invertebrates are cold-blooded and active only during warmer weather.